adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Of a defined group of taxa: not including all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of all members. not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms

grade

Example

More examples

"Reptiles are paraphyletic with respect to birds."

Etymology

From para- (“near”) + Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, race”) + -etic.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.